Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is a critically acclaimed title that has been praised for being an accomplished reboot of a retro classic. It arrived on PSN earlier this year, though the promised Wii U eShop iteration has been absent.

An explanation for the delay seems to have arrived, with series creator Lorne Lanning telling the Fragments of Silicon podcast that the issue is with the lack of a sizeable hard drive. The problem seems to be the 8GB white model, and ensuring that the game will run on that system — despite its phasing out by Nintendo in recent times. Lanning said the following.

We’re having challenges with not having a hard disk, but we’re trying to overcome those challenges. We have a significant amount of money and time invested in trying to resolve that issue, but if I guaranteed it, I might be silly.

If you're going to make a Wii U game, it better run on the 8GB unit. Otherwise, it's not really a Wii U game.

As some reassurance, however, the developer tweeted that the Wii U version isn't cancelled.

New 'n' Tasty is not cancelled on Wii U. We are currently having challenges with the platform that we are striving to overcome.— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) October 17, 2014

While retail downloads do not concern themselves with the limited hard drive space of the 8GB model — due to physical retail alternatives — that's not a luxury that download-only games can afford. The developer is clearly trying to avoid a scenario where those without an external hard drive for an 8GB system are excluded.

Hopefully this title will overcome its hurdles with Wii U soon. Let us know what you think of this, while below is the PSN E3 trailer for the game.

that's pure waste of time (and surely waste of quality) to make it fit 8gb because it's completely improbable that basic model users dont already have other softwares taking space into their consoles.
anyway it wont fit ...

The people who bought an 8GB Wii U, have no intention of buying eShop games, because 8GB is actually LESS space for mandatory updates and save data. So don't cater to the people who bought an 8GB Wii U, because they're not interested. And if they ARE interested they would have gotten an external hard drive, so there's no problem anymore.

That's a big thing to say it's a waste of time. I appreciate what they're doing here. Making sure everyone who owns a Wii U, no matter which model, will be able to play the game. I salute 'em for that.

Nonetheless, I do wish they had made the Basic model with 32gb, and the Deluxe with 128gb - 256gb. I think Nintendo has finally realized the impact of digital, and I would be shocked if their next home console did not include substantially more hard drive space.

I get what they're doing, but if they get it barely under 5GB or however much space people with the basic Wii U have, then those people would need to have not downloaded any other games in order to fit Oddworld...seems unlikely.

Shouldn't an article about this list the size of the game somewhere? I'm wondering how much of this story is actually true considering how many games are already out there that wouldn't fit on the 8GB which is really only about a 4GB b/c of the Wii U OS taking up the other 4GB.

I'm wondering if it's more of an issue that they can't figure out how to make it run off of the external HDD like other games do and they are just trying to blame their incopmentce on Nitnedo's small storage?

@SanderEversWell a 1TB SSD would put the cost at around $1000 minimum.

Solid state is still too expensive to utilize for large hard drives. I could see them doing a 128gb SSD, but even that would add $75 at manufacturer's cost. If they could deliver a 128gb SSD console for $350 though they would hit the nail on the head. I'd be totally okay with that. If they were to use a normal hard drive though, you could add 500 gigs for $30-50.

I don't know, we'll have to see how much SSD costs come down by the time next generation comes around. It seems Nintendo is not fond of using a hard drive with movable parts, and I can respect that. I'd rather have 128 GB of flash memory or solid-state drive than a terabyte using a traditional hard drive. If they are just going to use a traditional hard drive, I'd rather them not and let me buy an external.

You really have to wonder what the numbers are for people with an 8GB console who would:1. Actually buy stuff from the eShop2. Go for this type of game3. Not be okay with buying an external HDDBecause you'd have to assume that it's a negligible number, come on...for the love of Arceus

I always figured the 32gb model was for those that didn't intend to download much. 32gb is nothing in this day and age. Heck, it was nothing 9 years ago when the 360 launched. If you want to get digital releases, you'll need an external HD, so why bother spending extra on the internal memory that won't be needed?

1) Do what other eshop games do and put a disclaimer on the page listing how many blocks are required and that you may need a hard drive.or2) Release it on a disc (maybe throw in HD Abes Exodus on the same disc hint, hint).

uh, can you not download eshop games to an external drive just like retail games via the eshop? i mean the whole external drive thing is a pain, but at least its a way to make it all work....or you could have just bought the 32gb model to begin with, where did you think you would put downloads with only like 4g of available space?

16 GB flash drive.15-20$.How hard is it for these devs to get it?This isn't a legitimate excuse.It's the barrel scraping of someone delaying their game for a bigger install base.They're obviously pushing this to December when Smash has boosted those numbers.Apparently, his 'that's just one hurdle' comment in a later tweet was supposed to prevent people from coming to that conclusion.General Nintendo gamers won't buy it and I think they get that now.

Many are missing the point. With such a low installed user base for the Wii U (how many, less than 9 million?), chances are that those who bought the 8GB version make up for an sizable percentage of this number. Factor in the amount of players interested in this type of game and Wii U owners looking forward to buy this game shrinks a lot.I have a neighbor who bought the 8GB version with the Skylanders game a year ago, and doesn't feel the need to add a HD drive.

@macengAnd in your opinion, would he or she be the type of consumer to a) use their credit card to buy games digitally and b) be interested in a rather 'core' platformer like New n' Tasty?The issue isn't that there are those who purchased the 8GB model. The issue is thinking that there are those who purchased the 8GB model, don't have an external drive and still would be interested in this title.It's like with the Wii Sports bundles. How many of those people, those Wii Sports bundle purchasing people, legitimately spent money on the Wii Shop?I'd say it was quite the small number.For the 8GB model, I'd venture that maybe, just maybe, 400k systems were sold.It was cancelled by Nintendo in less than a year. It got dusty on store shelves while quite a few locations sold out of black consoles for the first little bit.Skylanders WAS Wii Sports. If it were exclusive to the Wii U, it would sell systems.Nintendo didn't grab long term customers with Wii. That was gaming's gateway console. Now, those types of gamers buy stuff like Skylanders. And that's pretty much it (50-75$ game and portal, 12$ figurines).This isn't a game that's going to sell consoles.And it's not going to be grabbing those Skylanders / Wii Sports gamers either.

Another aside: the game isn't exactly cheap. At, what 30$, there's now WAY too many titles on the eShop that are half that and still just as much (if not more) fun.This is a remake. Inflated because the devs are funding it out of pocket.Their price point alone is negating 'casual' gamers, gamers who can spend the same amount and get an Assassin's Creed IV (a properly advertised title), Rayman Legends (which looks more family friendly) or I don't know.. take their family out for dinner and enjoy their time.It's a single player game.No single player gamer purchased the basic without an external drive.

@ogo79 Lol!Oh THANK ODD(world) its NOT cancelled!!! I appreciate them keeping every single Wii U owner in mind, trying to maximize their sales, but the wait is killing me. I also never got to play Stranger's Wrath so, yeah, I'm ready!

I hope that with Nintendo's next system, they go at least 64GB flash and 32GB SSD. Leave room for an external drive and call it a day.Oh and a 10 core, 3 GHz CPU 3 GB GPU16 GB RAMOptical outHDMI 1.4+USB 3.0 (and a higher thoroughput for power)More powerful cooling system and better ventilationOh and built in Wi-fi AND 10/100/1000 ethernetThey went for cost effectiveness over performance and with every Borderlands, Wolf Among Us, Evil Within that goes by, the more I regret the Wii U. Nintendo will have different management if they survive this console generation.If not, they'll make a killing off the 3DS now and make an all-in-one handheld with TV output later.

I just ran out of room on my 32gb version. All retail titles have been purchased on disk. My WiiU is full of only indie titles. I'd love to make this my first game utilizing a new hard drive, but I guess I'll be waiting.

By the time they overcome those issues, everyone will have gotten the game in other systems (or don't care about the game anymore) so they will lose a ton of sales. A lot more than just the sales of the people who have the 8GB model.

And anyway, just how big this one is anyway? I still find amazing that EAD Tokyo can fit 3D World in less than 2GB and other devs struggle to keep file sizes reasonable.

I'd like to assume that anyone who got the 8GB model (such as myself, since it was on sale) probably purchased some sort of USB external storage device. Of course, there's always a handful who don't realize this. You don't want to exclude people.Then again, by the time it comes to the Wii U, anyone who would have purchased that version may have already bought it on some other system.

Well it's a pretty poor situation all around! Nintendo need to take a long hard look in the mirror for creating this mess (32/64gb I think would have been sensible) but on the other hand.....whilst the thought is appreciated from the oddworld team.....they are making a mountain out of a mole hill since the problem is not theirs. It's up to the consumer and suppliers of hardware to decide what is best for them! I bought the 32gb model on release day because I only like black hardware. Memory was not in my thinking- I bought a 32gb data stick for my demos and junk and I've got plenty of room.....for now! =/

I would actually much rather have the option for adding harddrives the way nintendo has made it- whereas i think the developer should release the game regardless of size- the fact that it is so EASY to add a big usb hd is awesome to me- right now i have the 32gb model with a 500gb hd on back with the option for another if i ever need, hds are so cheap now a days, and with a 4usb hub plugged into the wall behind my WiiU, I can even just add a USB stick and it will recognize it.

@Dipper723 I got an 8GB model at launch, but I also had a 320GB ext drive that I plugged in immediately after setting up the system. Having an external storage device nowadays is not uncommon, even if you don't do much with computers.

@Spoony_Tech agreed release the game and let the consumers decide or buy an external HD.

@sinalefa 3D world is a labor of love and they took the time to learn how to properly utilize the WiiU which unfortunately i dont believe some devs consider it worth the time to do when its easier to just have the cpu do most of the work

@rjejr seems Toys r Us has a promotion for SSB WiiU preorder and get a free amiibo! nintendo must have finally heard you

@SahashraLA I believe that you would be happier with a Microsoft or Sony console. They are the ones that are going to chase the flashy specs and shove everything including the kitchen sink into their console. They are also the ones that will charge you an high dollar for the privilege.

Nintendo on the other hand chooses a concept and a price point. Then they build the best piece of hardware to execute that concept that the price point can afford. They do not appear to care what the latest bleeding edge tech is, because they seem to realize that in a month that tech will be outdated and surpassed by the PC. They focus on delivering the best experiences they can with their product, not using marketing to sell crap.

@adrenochrome Exactly what i was thinking, pretty stupid to delay a game due to this, it could be the case with external HD as well, if its full it wont work so why bother with this silly 8GB version. The requirement should just be met for installing the game. External HD is super cheap these days anyway.

moreover if fitting into the stock basic model is so important, nintendo would have made it mandatory into the eshop rules.Remember tekken tag tournament 2, one of the first eshop game, didnt fit at all the 8gb model

wiiu users > 8gb model users > who didnt bought an HD > who never bought an eshop title > who will buy this gameprobably the number corresponding to this subset of wiiu users is near to zero

A developer says that he wants to male the game run in the basic models, even if it isn't mandatory and all of you are already showing your arrogance against "casual users2 (whatever tf that means) and making tantrums against nintendo.

@minotaurgamer : not "all", pleasei have nothing against the amount of internal disc space choosen by nintendo : i consider this space is for saving games of storing small appsi have nothing against casual gamers too, all those who dl games already have an external hdi only have a problem with the excuse of "fitting the 8gb model", an info that have already been modified according to the twitter post mentioned upper by @jariw , now "other challenges" has been added. it seems it was only an quick excuse that still need to be clarified

So, they need to compress all data from the original 8.5 GB game into roughly 4 GB max (the other 4GB is for Wii U software update/save data.)
That means they must cut the game in half, or bring the textures down from hi-res to blurry-mess. Or maybe much framerame stuttering from in-game graphics decompressing? It's contraproductive to do extra work to make a worse version. Every Wii U owner interested in downloading games has their external hard drive hooked up.

@WanderingPB - Hey man thanks for the link, now this is what I'm talking about, advertising.

And speaking of, 1st 2 pages of Game Informer mag were for B2. The really obviously anti-Nintendo mag also had reviews for HW, SSB for 3DS and the last 2 pages were Fantasy Life. That's like an entire years worth of Nintendo coverage for that mag.

Seriously though, what an idiotic reason to delay a game. There are plenty of games on the eShop that well exceed the remaining 3GB of storage space remaining in the basic Wii U console. There are Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles that wouldn't be able to run the game without an external hard drive but that certainly didn't seem to deter them from releasing the game on those platforms. Heck, the Arcade model of the Xbox 360 had less internal memory than the original Wii did! (256MB vs. 512MB)

I'm sure that most owners of the 8GB console aren't interested in eShop games to begin with so they really aren't missing any potential customers there.

How much longer do they intend to delay the game while it has been available on other platforms for several months now? My interest in this game is rapidly diminishing, and if they stupidly decide to release a gimped version on Wii U as so many other third party developers have before them, then I won't support this. We've had enough of that sort of B.S. on Wii U and I won't support it any longer.

I think more amazing than the excuse is that from reading the comments people actually thought the 8GB was for full games and not just save files. Also amazing that people still think you arn't paying a premium for the internal storage in the xbox or ps4. How in the world people can still criticize nintendo for not charging a premium for storage and instead allowing customers to choose how much they need.

there was no point in nintendo chasing the horizon with 64 gig/ 128/512 all become obsolete and add no real value to the gamer. the ability to add an external drive is precisely the right approach. mechanical parts are innately less reliable and ssd is not good value
if you want a bigger faster drive buy a pc.
stoked to be finally able to play these great games on my nintendo

@rjejr no worries but im curious if TRU will also have the SSB amiibo bundle? or if it can be combined so u could get two amiibos…but like u said happy they're offering some incentive to get consumers to pre-order from them now we need Ninty to spread the word!

im happy Cereza & other Ninty games are gettin sum love in GI magazine for a change…also incase ur interested they have finally restocked the extended battery in the Nintendo store for NA. doubles the charge time of the original gamepad battery.

Before you guys say any..nvm I may've been a tad late. This isn't because of nintendo DL limit. (well maybe minus to those unfortunate souls that cant afford a 32 gig model/hard drive) in fact that's what they're going for. I mean have you SEEN Bayonetta's download size?

They are just trying to shift extra costs to users, and save themselves money - instead of providing proper retail distribution through physical media.

One thing that hasn't really been considered is the download whack from the internet services provider. If you don't have a good service, with either a big monthly download limit or a high download speed, then you have to suffer or go without.

I have the Basic model and I'm proud of it! I bought it second hand on times when Trine2 was the best game on WiiU and I got external hard drive cheap from my brother-in law and I've regretted nothing! My only worry was that I'd had to pay for WWHD but MK8 offer saved me from that. With the money saved I've been able to get more good games. Having Basic model with external hard drive is not bad at all:)

With all the updates... there isn't any space left with 8gb. Seriously...I DO understand, that 8gb + external is as good, but if someone thinks they can go on with only the console... well of course if nothing from eSHop.

I am bit annoyed that you need the space when you buy games from eShop. You cannot buy and install later. Noticed this last Christmas, when tried to buy RER. Thankfully sales brought 1TB WD for me for 70e.

NBA 2K13 is for example 20GB - but of course, you can buy it physical.

This is stupid. Nintendo made a decision not to include any reasonably sized storage. . . so gave us external HD support. There's no prob here. Release game - people that have basic model will buy a £5 flash stick to play it! Other companies release larger games on eshop!

Just one more example to show that Nintendo goofed when it specced the Wii U system. No wonder it's not seeing third party support when it's just so much hassle for these developers to get their games on the system. No reasonable person can expect that all developers can simply afford the money and manpower to go off and make completely different versions of its games just to support one system when the normal versions works perfectly fine on multiple other platforms without needed to change lots of stuff. Nintendo really should have known better.

If basic model users are in fact buying off eshop they either have a hard drive or are buying games like Spikey Walls and other cheap, more casual diversions. OddWorld is more for the Shovel Knight owning crowd that has an insatiable appitite for quality.

I bought the white 8GB Wii U since it really didn't matter which one I got; I knew I'd be hooking up external storage either way. By the way, the 8GB unit had only just 2GB of usable space after OS updates and such. The developer here catering to the scenario of a customer with an 8GB Wii U and full storage capacity of 2GB remaining seems like an odd choice. I expect most other 8GB owners will also have external storage, and if they don't, then they're not buying downloadable games.

If they want to include people who bought an 8GB model and don't own an external drive, release it on disc. 99% of those people wouldn't consider buying a large retail download anyway. If they were the type of people that would consider that, they would have either bought the 32GB model or (more likely) an external hard drive!

@NavySpheal It was a great idea if they wanted to keep the price of the system under $450, which they did. Regardless of the type or size of the drive they put in the system, they would have had to charge more per GB than the consumer would pay by buying an external drive of their own choosing. Ex: You can get a 1TB external HDD on Amazon for under $80. If Nintendo had chosen to include an HDD, they would have had to increase the price of the console by a minimum of $100, and the hard drive would have been at most a quarter the size of the one I could get myself for less.

Also, 32GB is enough for people who are planning on buying most of their games in disc form but want to purchase a few smaller games off the eShop from time to time. I have both a brother and sister in that situation and neither had problems until my brother decided (a year after purchasing the system) that he wanted to start getting digital versions of retail games. At which point he spent $50 on a 500GB external drive. Problem solved. Your statement might sound good on paper, but it's not true in the real world.

Nintendo got the right idea to not include an hdd, in the last two years hdd price lowered a lot (4 months ago i got a 32gb usb2 pen drive for 10$ and a 3TB Seagate usb3 hdd for 106$ tax included) and even the 32GB model doesn't allow you to buy many games but the fact that they're talking about the 8gb make me think something else:

the game is larger than 5GB clearly (not actually a hard problem)

the game has many hours of low compressed 1080p video

the game has MegaTexture! (in that case the low speed usb2 drive will have a lot of problem and maybe cannot run the game but why the hell a game like that had to use megatexture!!!!)

they have received a visit from an archangel that make a prophecy: "You will not release the game on wiiu and your bank account will raise!"

I'll keep waiting, plus Stranger's Wrath is the one I really want. I'm getting ready to sell my PS3 for more Wii U and Xbox One software so I don't really see a reason to worry about getting PS3 games at this juncture anyway.

@WaxxyOneThe problem with that is flash memory is actually more expensive per gigabyte than traditional HDDs. So following your logic, they'd actually have to charge even more than for the equivalent mechanical drive.

They deal in bulk and one would assume directly with the manufacturer, so they wouldn't necessarily have to charge more, unless they wanted to pull an Apple.

I think in Nintendo's case, they went with the best they could do on the budget they set for it. If they say, only wanted to spend $30, then they needed the best storage they could get for $30. They probably could have went with 250GB or something, but even that is worth piddly poo these days. If people are just going to end up upgrading anyway, then why not opt for flash to go with peoples' mass-storage of choice? People already do that on PC, so its actually pretty forward-thing on Nintendo's part.

@NavySpheal Doesn't it work the same way as on the Wii where you store your save files and most of your downloads on an SD card? In that case, they just need the game to fit the size limit so that it can be temporarily transferred over to the system memory whenever you choose to load the game.

Even with mentioning the Vita (which had 4GB cards are the smallest form) to argue against this excuse, there are plenty of Wii U digitally-distributed games that take up more than what the 8GB SKU has (after taking roughly 5GB for OS operations).

All in all, the 8GB SKU is a budget SKU, and not meant to be the de-facto standard for the Wii U. And as it is, anyone that got the 8GB SKU and wants to go digital will have bought a companion ext HDD (like me), so this is no excuse.

So dumb. People who have the 8GB unit (I'm one of them, by the way) either don't buy these kinds of games or have already sprung for a cheap hard drive. Really that 8 GBs is more like 4 anyway. Sure, maybe you could fit a game like this on there, but then there'd be no room for anything else (your save files, patch updates for other games, etc.).

I have an 8GB unit and had a drive day one. If this game is over 5GB in size I'd say it's basically a retail release. When you buy a large game like that doesn't the eShop tell you if you lack space? I don't see the point in catering to anyone who isn't serious enough about buying download titles not to have some kind of additional storage. Shame Nintendo didn't make it a wee bit easier by allowing installs to SD rather than limiting that to Wii mode - would have made things even easier.

Seriously though, it's not like the 8GB Wii U was completely useless, people. If you go purely physical, 8GB is more than enough space for save data. I only have my hard drive because eShop titles were interesting to me and Assassin's Creed IV had a 1500 MB update. Otherwise, 8GB got me from 18 Nov 2012 to just this summer.

What a weird problem to have. There's such a tiny, minuscule percentage of end users who have a white Wii U without any form of external storage like SD card or USB HDD. I'm all for a developer "doing things right" rather than half assing but this seems like such a non-issue as a whole.

This is by no means a serious statistic but I know 12 people with Wii U's and all of them are the black Deluxe edition.

Nintendo just needs to own up to their screw-up and give everyone who provides a serial number proving they have an 8GB model a free external hard drive. Problem solved. Developers shouldn't have to suffer because of Nintendo's stupidity and short sightedness.

@kyuubikid213 I'm confused. You start by saying the 8GB model isn't useless, then go on to say that the 8GB model is so useless it didn't even last 2 years before you had to upgrade your storage via an external.

@SahashraLA@QuorthonWrong. They just stated that they are restocking the 8GB model to several gaming outlets.Also, the Skylanders' version comes in a 8GB Wii U package.

I stand corrected. More consoles that the game can be played in, the better. Even if it means 50,000-100,000 possible sales.

Nintendo does not provide a breakdown of type of consoles sold, but I'll venture and say, based on price (which everyone seemed to forget was a sticking point in the Wii U poor sales), that there is a least 2 million units of the 8Gb model.

I wonder, how big may this game actually be?! I don't really believe in Lorne anymore. He whines about the industry, that's why he went download only. But it took him ages to bring this game, wich is just the same game with some improved graphics, to the market. Should it take THAT long? Should it be THAT big? If its 10 GB for example, that takes days to download on Wii u (Wii u has a TERRIBLE download speed). And when is that game coming about the Oddworld shepherd? Never, I guess!!